Warning re Norton Internet Security Identify Safe

[George Tyndall]

The fine print: If you choose to click on that yellow "Sync" button to synchronize your local Identiry Safe vault with an online vault you will in actuality be permanetly removing your local vault--and you will be able to access your online vault only from a computer which has Norton product installed, according to what I have just read in the fine print.

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In other words, Sync data online in Nortonese actually means permanently move data online.

How's that for a sneaky way to be sure we only use machines with a Norton procuct installed?

[TreeTopsRanch]

I can't imagine them doing that. Having your important stuff in the cloud isn't too secure without encrypting your data anyway, now I have to use their program to even retrieve or look at my data. Just dumb.

And don't you have to renew Norton every year, for a fee, so now your cloud storage is no longer free?

If MS ever does that with Skydrive then I will just not use it anymore. So far the Skydrive sync feature is working for me.

[Bob]

Originally, you had to access the online vault through a Norton product. Now, they provide an Identity Safe Web Portal that you can sign onto to access the online vault from any Internet web browser -- you don't have to have a Norton product installed. I'd be reluctant to do that from a device I didn't own, though. I would only do it from a device I could trust. I definitely wouldn't trust a public computer that has a high likelyhood of having a keylogger or some other malware. FYI, they do have free Identity Safe apps for smart phones and tablets.

The online vault is encrypted. You need to create the online vault using your Norton antivirus product, but once created, you can access it from any device using either Norton products or the web portal. As a second level of security, you need to be able to sign on to your Norton account before you can sign on to the online vault.

[George Tyndall]

Originally, you had to access the online vault through a Norton product. Now, they provide an Identity Safe Web Portal that you can sign onto to access the online vault from any Internet web browser -- you don't have to have a Norton product installed.

Thanks for informing us that what I read is incorrect, Bob, as one of the computers that I (only) work with does not have a Norton product installed.

[Bob]

I've been reading up on it a little more. Besides the iOS and Android mobile client apps, they also have a free PC client that you can use on the machine where you don't have NIS installed. Here's the web site where you can sign in through the web portal or download the PC client. https://identitysafe.norton.com/. It looks like the client will fill in the form while with the portal you need to cut and paste.

[George Tyndall]

I've been reading up on it a little more. ....

Bob, what about permanently removing the local vault when the online vault is set up? Is that also not true?

[Bob]

Yes, the local vault is deleted when you setup the online vault and sync it. It does keep a local cache that can be used if the online identity safe server is down or unavailable, but it isn't the same as a local vault and cannot be used to recreate the local vault. If you look at the Norton community forum, a lot of people are having problems with the online vault -- not being able to open or missing passwords. Don't know how widespread the problem is though, people that don't have the problem don't post. Sounds like it's a good idea to not sync and stick with the local vault for now.

I hope you are backing up your vault by export data.

[George Tyndall]

I hope you are backing up your vault by export data.

Yes, I am--and that's why I am extremely hesitant to move my local vault to "the cloud."

Problem is, my employer for my day job is upgrading my machine from XP to Win7, which I like but for the following issue: My Kensington Expert Mouse software, which has the capability to locate my oft-used web sites and then automatically fill in my usernames and PWs with XP, wil not work with Win7. And the version of the Kensington hardware and software that is designed for Win7 does not have that capability.

With regard to the new machine that I will use on my day job, it would be nice to have NIS, online version, fill in my usernames and PWs for all my favorite URLs; however, I'm not willing to pay the price of permanently losing my local vault on the personal machine that I use in the studio for my photo and other projects.

Keeping in mind that my employer has become more strict than in the past about downloading personal-use software to the machine that I am provided, are you aware of any NIS-like software that will allow me to fill in my usernames and PWs for my oft-visited IE Favorites?

[Peru]

Keeping in mind that my employer has become more strict than in the past about downloading personal-use software to the machine that I am provided, are you aware of any NIS-like software that will allow me to fill in my usernames and PWs for my oft-visited IE Favorites?

Doesn't IE, Chrome, and Firefox allow you to do that?

[George Tyndall]

Keeping in mind that my employer has become more strict than in the past about downloading personal-use software to the machine that I am provided, are you aware of any NIS-like software that will allow me to fill in my usernames and PWs for my oft-visited IE Favorites?

Doesn't IE, Chrome, and Firefox allow you to do that?

Yes, but they are not NIS-like; the data is not encrypted and is therefore (I've been told) relatively-easily hackable.

[Bob]

Here's an article reviewing various 3rd party password managers. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407168,00.asp Worth a read.

IE, Chrome, and Firefox aren't the most secure managers. IE and Chrome encrypt the password using the master login password and can be easily be decrypted with a commonly available utility. Worse, Chrome has a command to actually display the passwords. Firefox allows encryption with a master firefox password, but that has to be enabled. But, If you aren't allowed to install software, you're pretty much limited to IE.

[George Tyndall]

Here's an article reviewing various 3rd party password managers. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407168,00.asp Worth a read.

Very helpful, Bob. As you said, users of the online NIS vault are having issues. Also, a user reports that one of PCW's top-rated managers, Dashlane, slowed his machine to a crawl, so he had to uninstall it.

IE, Chrome, and Firefox aren't the most secure managers. IE and Chrome encrypt the password using the master login password and can be easily be decrypted with a commonly available utility. Worse, Chrome has a command to actually display the passwords. Firefox allows encryption with a master firefox password, but that has to be enabled. But, If you aren't allowed to install software, you're pretty much limited to IE.

My current XP machine does have Firefox installed. Assuming my new WIN7 Pro machine also has Firefox installed, and taking into account that only the employer-Administrator can make changes, is it likely that I will be able to "enable" the Firefox encryption that you mention? If I can, is it adequately secure for my banking usernames and passwords?

[Bob]

Try setting a master password and see. http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-master-password-protect-stored-logins See also the paragraph about using a master password in this article: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Master_password Especially the 2nd paragraph about needing to log off.

None of the browsers is great, but Firefox is more secure than the other two because of the separate master password.

[George Tyndall]

Try setting a master password and see. http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-master-password-protect-stored-logins See also the paragraph about using a master password in this article: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Master_password Especially the 2nd paragraph about needing to log off.

None of the browsers is great, but Firefox is more secure than the other two because of the separate master password.

I'll check those links once I know whether Firefox will be installed.

Thank you for providing them.

P.S. Now that I think about it, it wouldn't be the end of the world if, on my employer's machine, I had to manually enter the few usernames and PWs that I use for my banking and credit accounts.

The most important issue is that I did not lose my local NIS vault on my studio machine by clicking that big yellow "Sync" button that Symantec seemed to be strongly encouraging me to click. I'm so glad that, as always, I first read the fine print.

Thanks still once again for your assistance.